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Monday, May 21, 2012

The NHL has yet to release VP of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan’s video explanation but the Rangers’ Brandon Prust has received a one-game suspension for his high elbow to the head of Devils defenseman Anton Volchenkov at 2:31 of the second period in the Rangers’ 3-0 win in Saturday’s Game 3 of their Eastern Conference final.

Coach John Tortorella was asked today who might take Prust’s spot in case of a suspension and Tortorella said he hadn’t thought that far ahead because he didn’t think Prust deserved to be suspended.

However, Shanahan’s decision can’t be called surprising.

“It’s right,” Volchenkov told The Record’s Tom Gulitti in Newark today. “I got hit in the head. But it’s not my decision. It’s a decision for Brendan Shanahan. My decision is just to play hockey.”

Like Tortorella, who called Prust an “honest” player and noted he had not been fined or suspended in his 279-game NHL career (not including playoff games), Prust’s teammates were quick to defend him today.

“I’ve known Prusty to be an honest player all year long,” Derek Stepan said. “He plays physical and he plays it that way and we’ve never had an incident like this. I think Brandon is just trying to play his game and not trying to do anything.”

Said Brad Richards: “We know Prust is an honest player. It’s the game of hockey, sometimes things happen. He’s definitely not going out there trying to head hunt, he’s never done it how many games he’s played. He plays the game the right way, it’s not really big issue in the room with that. Look at the whole game, there’s more than that one incident.”

Richards, of course, was saying the same thing as Tortorella did earlier, when he called out Dainius Zubrus for an elbow to Anton Stralman and Zach Parise for “launching” himself at Michael Del Zotto for a hit.

“He’s been huge for us,” Brian Boyle said. “I think he does a lot of grunt work. He does a lot of heavy lifting. And he’s been hitting it really hard. He’s really done it the right way, I think. Not a dirty player by any means. He’s done a lot for us. He stands up to guys a lot bigger than him and heavier than him. And we played a lot the last couple of years together. It’s been a lot of fun.”

As for Devils coach Pete DeBoer saying Prust was “headhunting, plain and simple,” Marc Staal had this response: “I think calling Prust that is a little unnecessary. He’s a pretty honest player and he’s been that way his whole career. He plays hard.”
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About

ANDREW GROSS covers the New York Rangers for The Record and Herald News, having joined the North Jersey Media Group in November 2007. Gross also covered the Rangers and New York Jets, as well as St. John’s basketball and Army football, for Gannett Newspapers and The Journal News (N.Y.). He graduated from Syracuse University in 1989 with a degree in newspaper journalism.